The Supermom

Recently there has been a lot of discussion surrounding the Second Shift. The Second Shift is the amount of unpaid domestic labor that is already tacked onto women’s paid jobs. Women are socialized into believing that they are supposed to be the homemakers/childrearers. Research that has been conducted shows that women averaged three hours a day on housework while men focus only seventeen minutes a day on house housework. Speaking from my own experiences of having a daughter men need to learn to help their partners out. With me being a single father it is so stressful trying to do schoolwork, my job, and take care of my daughter. It takes equal help around the house to keep it from staying messed up all the time. I also have to deal with the consent pestering from all my buddies about me being a single father and having to take on some of the non-traditional gender roles of taking care of my family. They pick at me because since I am a single father I have to do all what they call “women’s work” the cooking, cleaning, and making sure my daughter is taken care of. They are always asking me when am I going to find a woman to finally take over these types of chores. And I can honestly say I use to agree with them that I did need a woman to take over the house chores because that is what women are traditionally were taught to do. But I can now say to hell with traditional I make this work with how my family is right now and if I do end up with a partner in the future we will be working together for a more equalitarian household. The media has lead many of us to believe that is how women in our society are suppose to be. A fellow classmate of mine used the example of the Supermom that is being used by the media to keep the same gender roles and expectations in a constant motion. Until he brought it up I never even thought about how the Second Shift is being thrown in our faces everyday. There is all types of media being used we need to stop the media from using these types of imagery to keep women in the bonds of subordination.